While aircraft travel is considered among the safest modes of transportation, there are elements of air travel that remain a challenge. One of the most critical aspects of travel by aircraft is the landing, and more particularly, landing in inclement weather. Each year there are numerous cases of commercial aircraft landing or taxiing in poor weather conditions on runways affected by adverse runway conditions and having issues with the landing or control of the aircraft. A major contributor to these events is difficulty for the pilot to establish enough braking friction on wet or frozen wheels/runways to safely bring the aircraft to a controlled stop. This can lead to overrunning of the runway or other hazardous situations that are perilous for the aircraft and/or the passengers.
A current method for evaluating unfavorable runway conditions is for the pilots to communicate their subjectively perceived evaluations of the runway conditions based on feel and feedback from the aircraft after landing on the runway itself. This information is gathered by the controllers in the tower, who then make a general assessment of the landing risks for subsequent aircraft. Since these evaluations are entirely subjective and based on pilot evaluating, these subjective criteria often vary from pilot to pilot and can be unreliable for various reasons, including a pilot not wanting to admit that a landing was challenging or risky.
There is a need in the art for a more objective determination of the landing conditions on a runway at a particular location in inclement weather. While there are various methods in place that attempt to determine and communicate runway temperatures, moisture, humidity, etc., the present invention uses data from the aircraft brake control/anti-skid autobrake system to determine a developed braking effectiveness. The monitors within the brake control system can generate an objective runway condition report, based on braking conditions, that can be communicated to the flight deck or to an on-board monitoring system which forwards all of the information to controllers and subsequent flight crews.